Democrat holds slim lead on eve of PA-18 election, poll finds

13 March 2018

Saccone's heated rhetoric was overshadowed by a newly released poll indicating his opponent, Democrat Conor Lamb, was leading by a wide margin. "I just don't understand that people say we shouldn't put lobsters into hot, boiling water. but we can kill babies". Doug Jones' (D-AL) shocking win late past year, and said he'd rarely seen Democratic enthusiasm that strong for a down-ticket race - until Lamb came along. "They've gotta get out and vote, and if they get out and vote, we win easily".

"It should wake everybody up", Rep. Peter T. King (R-N.Y.) said. It's a surprisingly close race in this reliably Republican district between Democratic former prosecutor Conor Lamb, and Republican state legislator Rick Saccone.

At the candy plant, Tony Ross, 72, said he remained undecided. He's already earned the support of a number of unions in the region. "If he doesn't win, lock him up!" she said.

A poll conducted by Monmouth University show the race as incredibly close. "You guys have been up and down with poll numbers", he said. He rambled for over an hour about a wide variety of topics that didn't do anything to help Rick Saccone. "It would mark an extraordinary swing from Trump's almost 20-point victory here in 2016 if he could hold on to win". The 18th includes suburban towns south of Pittsburgh and has a mostly white electorate.

Voters in Pennsylvania's 18th Congressional District will head to the polls on Tuesday in a special election seen as a crucial test of the Republican Party's political strength ahead of the 2018 midterm elections.

Manley pointed to the string of special elections and governor's races that have gone the way of Democrats in recent months.

TRUMP: They're saying Obama, Obama, Obama. "You have to focus on what the candidates there are doing".

Voters in the state's 18th congressional district on Tuesday elect a new member of Congress.

Lamb's moderate streak has won converts.

Candelore said the company had been successful for decades, but that changes in the tax bill prompted management to hire permanent workers when in the past they would have taken on temporary staff. He aired a television ad noting that he opposes House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi, who is deeply unpopular with conservative voters.

He said if turnout was high that would "absolutely" be good for Saccone. We're going to try to cut the budget.

Frank Snyder, general secretary of Pennsylvania's AFL-CIO, challenged reporters at Lamb's Sunday rally to follow the rental cars of Republican operatives who have come to the district to turn out voters.

So the energy behind the Saccone effort is brought in from Washington, D.C.: the National Republican Congressional Committee and Republican National Committee, plus superPACs Congressional Leadership Fund and America First Action. Yes, it's true Lamb outraised Saccone.

Republicans privately agree, even as they look to pin the blame mostly on Saccone and downplay what it would mean to lose a deep red, culturally conservative district after a brutal loss in an Alabama Senate race late a year ago, a beat-down in Virginia's gubernatorial race, dozens of losses of state legislative seats and a number of close calls in House special elections.

Polls - and the national attention that comes with them - have started shifting in Lamb's direction, putting him in a position to pull off one of the biggest electoral upsets of the post-Trump era.

House Republicans poured cash onto the Pittsburgh airways and into get-out-the-vote programs. Democrats have also won a spate of state legislature races around the country, including in districts, like the one in Pennsylvania, that strongly backed Trump in 2016.